Hair-pin.



'No. 718,188 PATENTED JAN. 13, 1903. E. BROWN.

HAIR PIN.

APPLIGATION FILED APR. 30, 1900.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ENU BROWN, OF PEEKSKILL, NEW YORK.

HAIR-PIN.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent N 0. 718,188, dated January 13, 1903.

Application filed April 30, 1900.

T ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ENU BROWN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Peekskill, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hair-Pins, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates, primarily, to hairpins, though it is well understood that the uses to which hair-pins are put are "arious and are not limited to hair.

The object of the invention is to render the hair-pin easily securable in the hair and readily detached and drawn out from the hair.

Heretofore hair-pins have been bent in a variety of ways. Perhaps the best known form is that in which the tines of a wire hairpin have been made undulating or crimped, so that these undulations will tend to prevent the hair-pin dropping out or pushing out. Hair-pins have also been made with a concave bend in the top, so that when hidden under the hair they will be held in by strands of hair overlying and resting in the recess formed by the concave bend. It has also been proposed to form a T-shaped head on a wire hair-pin, the shoulders or the horizontal members of the T receiving the hair and holding the pin in place. This form is not, so far as I am aware, in general use, because of the difficulty and inconvenience of detaching it, it being necessary to disengage the hair from both arms of the T before the pin can be Withdrawn. The present invention differs from all these in providing a hairpin between the tines of which there is a single unhifurcated passage which at the head end of the hair-pin turns to one side, so that while forming a shoulder to catch and retain the hair, and thereby retain the pin in place, it also provides for the ready withdrawing of the hair-pin by merely pressing the hair or the pin laterally, so that the strand of hair embraced by the pin will free itself and be guided along the interval between the two tines without the least trouble.

In the drawings two modifications of the pin are shown, Figure 1 being a preferred form, and. Fig. 2 a variation of it.

Serial No. 15,024. (No model.)

In both figures wire pins are shown, though, of course, the invention is not limited to hairpins formed from wire, as they may be stamped, out, or otherwise formed from sheets of shell, horn, or other materials.

In both figures the tines are lettered, respectively, A and B. The space between them is lettered C. The head portion D of Fig. 1 is formed by the bending of both tines A. and B in the same direction, so that the space between the tines turns to the left and forms a laterally-extending recess, or pocket H, as seen in the figure, and the bend F of the tine A forms a shoulder. When the hair is in the recess H, it not only tends to hold the hairpin in place by resting upon the shoulder F, but it is also preferably confined and kept within the recess H by reason of the interval or space being narrower between the shoulder F and the tine B than at any other point. The inner surface of the tine may be smooth, uninterrupted, and continuousin the recess H, so that all that is necessary to free the pin from the hair is to press the head of the pin toward the left or, what amounts to the same thing, to press the hair toward the right against the tine B, and thereby permit the hair to pass along the smooth surface of the tine B as the hair-pin is withdrawn.

Fig. 2 differs from Fig. l in design rather than in principle. The shoulder F is not as abrupt, and the passage or space between the two tines is not enlarged in the same wayas Fig. 1. The spaces 0 and H form a continuous curved passage-way, the blind end of the passage-way being turned back or down toward the points of the pin. -Both are alike, however, in presenting an interior shoulder to engage the hair and a smooth guiding-surface continuous with one of the tines for permitting the withdrawal.

Obviously some features of the invention may be used without other features and may be embodied in widely-varying forms, par-.

a single laterally-extending recess adjacent too to thej unction of the tines, said recess being a Signed at Peekskill, in the county of Westcontinuation of the space between the straight chester and State of New York, this 14th day :0 portions of the tines, substantially as set forth. of April, A. D. 1900.

2. The improved hair-pin having a plural- T ity of tines connected at one end, and formed ELU BROWN with a laterally and downwardly extending Witnesses: recess adjacent to the junction of the tines, L. P. BROWN,

substantially as set forth. H. COURTNEY BROWN. 

